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Ubuntu 11.04 Desktop To Get Rid Of GNOME's Shell

10-25-2010, 11:00 AM

Phoronix: Ubuntu 11.04 Desktop To Get Rid Of GNOME's Shell

While GNOME 3.0 is expected to roll out in March and will boast the brand new GNOME Shell interface with the Mutter compositing window manager, this will not appear by default in the Ubuntu desktop. Certainly not in Ubuntu 11.04 and it doesn't look like it will be used at all in the future by default (granted, you'll be able to install the shell from a package repository). It's just been announced that beginning with Ubuntu 11.04, the desktop spin will begin using the Unity shell that Canonical originally developed for netbooks...

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@Beiruty
Exactly, is it all simply because of touch capabilities?
I'd like to see a list of user/technical features that are present in Unity and lack in Gnome Shell that contributed to this decision.
I'm concerned cause to me Ubuntu's own implementation of notifications is actually worse, same about their system tray applet, so I'm afraid their Unity will be also worse than Gnome's Shell in exchange of cool-sounding-features that are in reality not worth it.

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WOW. That is some news to report. Who is using the Unity? what are the reviews on that thing?

I haven't tried it since 10.10 RC1 (though I left the release ISO downloading at home as the new SSD for my netbook just turned up in the mail) but at that time Unity was unfinished and buggy as heck. But it does look like an interesting idea with potential, so hopefully six months will be enough for them to make it usable.

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I upgraded netbook from 10.04 to 10.10 and Unity is so bad I log in to the normal gnome environment now. I was not able to find any way to customize it. I don't mean anything tricky, I mean I couldn't find the settings pane, I couldn't add apps, move apps, or anything. Plus the left side bar, though good in theory on a screen with limited vertical, doesn't work in practice. Too many websites are designed for a minimum of 1024, and losing 50 pixels makes them scroll.

Unity is making me rethink running Ubuntu at all. They consistently make decisions based on "this will be good in 3 versions" rather than "this is the best right now". Sure, work on the new and improved, but ship the one that actually works.